A Study in Wildflowers

Kate Wilson

Wilderness Ranger Fellow

St. Mary’s Peak Volunteer Hitch

July 2- July 4

Bitterroot National Forest | Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness

As I made my drive from Iowa to Montana, I watched the landscape transform before my eyes. The sights I saw were largely unfamiliar, but that did not frighten me. I was excited to trade the rolling, gentle hills of my home state for the mountains and canyons of Montana. Even more, I was excited to absorb myself in learning about all the plants the state had to offer.

My first day in Missoula, I took myself on a short little hike and fell in love with all the wildflowers I saw. I pulled out my phone, opened my plant identification app, and committed myself to learning just three of the flowers I saw. Silky lupine, arrowleaf balsamroot, western gromwell. Later during our weeks of training, I bonded with my crew leader over our love of botany. Throughout the summer, she has taught me how to identify so many other wonderful flora. Indian paintbrush,  wild onion, glacier lily, calypso orchid, trillium, and more. I was thrilled to see some species I recognized from Iowa’s prairies, too. Prairie and woodland phlox, Mullan, yarrow, wild ginger. 

The Wilderness boundary sign at St. Mary’s trail.

A view of the St. Mary’s Peak Fire Lookout.

By the time I embarked on my third hitch – the crowd-favorite, St. Mary’s Peak volunteer project –I had a slowly growing wealth of plant knowledge under my belt. As we drove to the trailhead, I saw some familiar, and some unfamiliar, wildflowers. But I did not truly question what all these unfamiliar flowers were. It was not until I was hiking up the trail with a volunteer and she said to me between heavy breaths “wow, there are so many wildflowers up here. It’s amazing,” that I realized I had lost some of my curiosity.  I had gotten lost in the rhythm of the work ­– hike, cut, hike, cut, hike, cut, then hike some more ­– and forgotten to take the time to take in all the subtle beauty of the nature around me. Right then, I promised the volunteer that I would teach her any species I recognized, and I promised myself that I would learn as many unfamiliar species as I could.

By the time I reached the peak, I had seen countless flowers—but knew none of them. I was able to recognize one flower as a member of the Rosaceae, or rose, family but was completely lost beyond that.

So, when I returned to my little trailer at the Stevensville Ranger Station, I got to work identifying and learning the wildflowers I saw: shrubby cinquefoil, pink mountain-heather, spreading phlox, Gordon’s ivesia, western moss heather.

Shrubby cinquefoil.

Hooker’s mountain-avens.

Pink mountain-heather.

Spreading phlox.

Gordon’s ivesia.

Western moss heather.

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KATE WILSON

Bitterroot National Forest | Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness

Drake University

Major: Environmental Science | Minor: Spanish

Kate is from Iowa City, IA. She studies Environmental Science on a biological conservation track and Spanish at Drake University. Kate has always loved the outdoors and was truly inspired to become involved in land stewardship and conservation when she went on an SBFC IDAWA trip into the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness in high school. She has also worked as a Land Stewardship intern with the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, spending her summer in prairies across Iowa. She is excited to pursue new endeavors in the Wilderness and work to protect it.

Finding the Groove(r)

Thomas Neidenbach – Wilderness Ranger Fellow

Appalachian State University

Middle Fork Trail #001

June 23-June 30

Salmon-Challis National Forest | Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness

Night one…what a whirlwind she was. Dark storm clouds rolled over the mountain peaks towards our campsite outside of Boundary Creek Campground. Bolts of lightning struck the ridgelines as we watched and waited in anticipation for the sky to drop out above us. A light cool mist transitioned to heavy raindrops accompanied by pea sized hailstones that peppered tent rainflies. The following morning our crew of four cooked an egg scramble breakfast for our 10 volunteers joining us on the hitch. We eagerly loaded our packs, distributed tools, and began the 9-mile hike into the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness to Trail Flats Campground. Hiking mile by mile we passed one tree after another, each recently cut with fresh sawdust coating the rich charred soil beneath our boots. It was evident that a crew had recently cleared the fallen trees on trail #001 just days before us. Emotions of confusion transformed to frustration as we came to terms with the fact that our 8 days of work would be consumed by nothing but brushing.

Days passed as we worked making progress further down the trail lopping ceanothus, sagebrush, and wild rose bushes. At times we questioned if the endless lopping was worth the work, but we pressed on sharing our stories and experiences slowly finding a sense of cohesiveness. Together we all learned how to cook meals for a large group in the backcountry, collect clean water for 15 people with a broken gravity filter, find the most comfortable places to sleep on rocky terrain, and…how to use a Groover. Only in the backcountry does it seem appropriate to talk about using the bathroom but scurrying one by one down the trail to find the metal Groover toilet camouflaged by brush seemed to bring the group together.

Towards the final days of the hitch, we accepted that in the grand scheme of things trail work is trail work. Whether it be cutting a fallen two-foot diameter Douglas Fir tree with a crosscut saw, rolling a 400-pound boulder down an exposed rockslide, or lopping back ceanothus bushes that creep into the trail; the work that we do grants access to otherwise difficult and unpassable trails. Lopping brush seems to be the least glorious form of trail work, but by our final days it was clear that the group had found our groove.

Volunteers and SBFC crew members stop for a lunch break overlooking Velvet Falls on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River.

Volunteers hiking through a brushy meadow to Joe Bump Cabin Campground.

Volunteer, Gretchen Arguedas, standing on a rock outcropping over the Middle Fork of the Salmon River after lopping a dense section of trail #001.

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THOMAS NEIDENBACH

Salmon-Challis National Forest | Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness

Appalachian State University

Major: Recreation Management concentrating in Outdoor Experiential Education | Minor: Geography

Thomas grew up in Spartanburg, SC. He is a Junior at Appalachian State University. Thomas’ experience working on trails began in Boy Scouts. He has worked as a Camp Counselor and Zip Line Ranger in the North Carolina Blue Ridge Mountains. Outdoor recreation and activities have always been a significant part of his life. Wilderness areas have the power to reconnect humans with the Earth; Thomas is passionate about preserving and protecting Wilderness for this and future generations to be able to experience and respect the natural wonders held within.

Sounds of the Wilderness

Corey Dadds

Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest Trail Crew

Hitch #1 | Boulder Creek #211; Lochsa Peak #220; Lone Knob #198 | June 9-16

Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest | Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness

Our lives in the front country are full of so many sounds that we take for granted. The wail of sirens, cocktail of voices, music, tv in the background, and of course, the ever-present rumble of engines and screaming of rubber on pavement. Only in their absence does one realize the constant assault on our eardrums.

View from the trail.

As we loaded up our bags at the trailhead with the tools of the trade, the clicks of straps could be heard. An axe here, Pulaski there, a saw or five. I could hardly hear the passing cars on Highway 12 over the roar of the Lochsa River and the laughs of my comrades. We started up the trail and left both our cars and the rest of the world behind, and with them our creature comforts.

Beginning work on clearing trail, accompanied by the cry of a jay and the peeps of insects.

We began the fairly grueling 5-mile hike to our first campsite in high spirits, but quickly we discovered the pain that is a season's fresh legs and a pack loaded for five days of trail work. The groans of knee pain, blisters, sweat, and exhaustion soon overtook the laughter. All the while in the background was Boulder Creek, whose drainage we were ascending and whose cool waters would be another companion to us for the coming days.

Almost complete! The constant sound of the saw kept us company.

After our fair share of views, groans, and maybe more than our fair share of breaks, we finally made it to camp. Once at camp, one immediately became aware of the diversity of birds in the mountains of Idaho. The tweets of the chickadee, call of a blue jay, and even squall of an eagle filled my ears as everyone set up their tents. I could hear the poles snapping into place and the bickering over tent sites. As everyone settled in, the roar of 10 different stoves overtook the auditory landscape. We ate and before we knew it, it was time for bed. The roll of thunder could be heard in the distance.

I laid in bed reading The Hobbit for an hour or so and listened to the world around me. Boulder Creek took the forefront, but if I tuned it out, I could tune into the cacophony of the night time creatures and insects. Their trills came in ebbs and flows, one call triggering the next and when the leader stopped they would all fall in line. As I drifted off, the pitter patter of rain started to fall on my tent and lulled me to sleep. I could not help but think of the parallels of The Hobbit to our own adventure. I left the world of the waking with thoughts of the next day and excitement for what I might hear next!

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COREY DADDS

NEZ PERCE-CLEARWATER NF TRAIL CREW

Corey is “a corn sprout from Bloomington, Indiana.” He learned to love the outdoors working at summer camps as mountain biking director and trail maintenance supervisor. Corey went to college in Vermont and earned a degree in Renewable Energy and Ecological Design. He believes wild spaces should be protected and preserved so that generations to come can enjoy the transformative power of time spent in the wilderness.

What I Didn't Know

Alex Grahe

Wilderness Ranger Fellow

Hitch #1 | June 8th-16th

Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest | Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness

I found great difficulty attempting to write about our first hitch from my bunk. I feel it was easy enough to write about the events, our comings and goings, our activities clearing trail, but near impossible to capture the feeling of being out in wilderness. Even sitting on a hill behind the bunkhouse, ensconced between a rock and a tree-lined vista, I found it hard to describe the swelling of my heart. 

I think it might be hard for me to write about this in the same way it is hard to write about love. Working with Wilderness creates a feeling, a state of mind that crept up and then slammed into me once identified. With sweat and dirt clinging to me, I became enveloped in the hum of insects, roar of rushing water, and layers of green and blue. Time passed differently. Smiles came easier.

Not to say there weren’t difficulties. Hiking in with nine days of food on my back I thought I would keel over the edge of the trail. Our first night we had to sling a bear hang in the dark and tangled up our p-cord. On day three we ended work early for fear of hypothermia and putting my wet boots on the next morning was an act of pure will. As the days went on, I accumulated scrapes and bruises from wayward branches. There were times I was wracked with anxiety, but these centered around thoughts of returning to the world of cell phone coverage and capitalism. Despite my aching muscles and wet boots, I loathed to return to my old responsibilities. On the last day, I was speaking with my crew leader and said I was worried everything will have blown up by the time we got back, and he said, “what’s worse is everything will be exactly the same”.

As a child of the suburbs, I knew the outdoors were beautiful and I’d read enough to know the value of wild spaces for the ecosystem and the human psyche. What I didn’t know was the calm I’d feel from being 10 miles in the backcountry, having carried myself and my belongings there. I didn’t comprehend the satisfaction I’d feel making a crosscut flush with an older log. I didn’t know the relief I’d feel bathing in the stream every day, scrubbing myself with stones and checking for ticks. My dreams were filled with the sound of running water, and each tree we cut spat dust thick with aromatic compounds and the pungency of decay. 

Though typical of the human condition to see greener grass, the solace I found in wilderness work was unlike any I’d known before. There were no mirrors. What I saw of myself was refracted through others. Being out there loosens the trammels of the mind, encourages one to listen. 

I’m still going to curse my way through a five-mile hike with a full pack and grumble when I wake up to steady pattering on my rain fly, but I’ll look back and remember the quiet of my mind. The steadiness of the work, the relief of a warm meal, and the joy of every moment out there. I feel I’ll remember all of it fondly, no matter how miserable I was at the time, and that’s more than I can say for most of my life. 

I could only console myself leaving with the thought I would be back. I cannot do the wilderness justice. You must come see for yourself, for she speaks on her behalf far better than I ever could. 

The below images come from Alex’s sketchbook during his first hitch in the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest, Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness.

Boulder Creek at Horse Camp

Figure 4. Tree (cedar?) at Outfitter Camp

Figure 5. Four Brook Trout and One Cutthroat Trout from Boulder Creek, ID

Figure 1. Flush Cut

Figure 2. 74 Year Old Lodgepole Pine

Figure 3. Old Outfitter Camp

ALEX GRAHE

Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest | Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness

York College of Pennsylvania

Major: Biology | Minor: Fine Arts, Chemistry

Alex grew up in Tacoma, WA and spent a lot of time at Mount Rainier as a child. He has always been interested in ecological relationships and has a fascination with stories of survival and life among wilderness. The more he learns about the workings of trees and microbes, the more he thinks humans can learn from their dynamic. Alex is excited to become more familiar with the labor involved in maintaining wilderness, and is excited to spend some time listening to the trees.

2021 Season Training

Liesl Magnus

Wilderness Ranger Fellow

May 17 - June 6

Missoula, MT | Wilderness Gateway, ID | Sam Billings Memorial Campground, MT

Hi! My name is Liesl, I’m a Wilderness Ranger Fellow on the Nez Perce-Clearwater crew for the 2021 trail season. I’m sitting and writing the first part of this from a laundromat (shoutout Green Hanger) on the north-ish side of Missoula, charging my phone and my laptop while my clothes spin in the dryer next to me. It’s been a whirlwind couple of weeks since arriving in Missoula and I’m here to tell you about it before the gang splits for the summer and heads off to their respective stations tomorrow! 

A view of our campsite.

This summer, there’s a dozen Wilderness Ranger Fellows and about the same number of trail crew workers, summer staff, and crew leads. Some of us are from the Missoula area, some of us (like me!) are from much further afield. Most of the fellows have been living at the KOA campground by the airport, which is a bummer when it rains but most of the time feels like a combination of summer camp and a college dorm. The weeks have alternated 40 and raining with 95 and sunny, keeping all of us on our toes and with our layers close at hand as May and June tend to do while we get ready for the season. 

The first few days with SBFC were a blur of paperwork and new faces, lots of office time, and a true death by PowerPoint. Later that week, we loaded up the old vans--Deer Hunter, Hobbes, and Murphy for those that know SBFC--and headed up to Wilderness Gateway over Lolo Pass for a few days learning to work with pack stock and clear load after load of brush from the old paddocks so that the fences could be replaced and they could be used again. 

At Wilderness Gateway the second night, everyone that had been involved in our projects the last few days stood in a loose circle around the fire as darkness crept down into the river valley. The shoulders of the mountains were shrouded in mist as they fell down to Boulder Creek and the Lochsa River, but around the fire conversation flowed through small groups and we were warm, full of the pleasure of good food and good company. 

Hanging out around the campfire.

We spent all of the next week south of Missoula at the Sam Billings Memorial Campground in another blur of new names, new faces, and new skills for many of us. We went over how to swing an axe, how to double-buck and single-buck a log, how to judge tension and bind and compression in a fallen tree and maybe most importantly, how to do all of this safely. In the evenings we explored the elk trails that wound their way through the pine groves by the river and used our new axe skills to get wood for the fire. We swam in the river most nights, too, in and out as fast as we could while still scrubbing all the dirt off. Our skin tingled and our toes were pink with cold--the river was still flush with snowmelt and the full day of rain only made the river run harder. Warming up around the fire, we played riddle games as we sat around burning this and that, trying to improve the flavor of what remained of our food on the last night. 

Learning how to single-buck.

Trails week concluded with a half a day of learning to dig out water bars and brushing where needed and we headed back to Missoula for a much needed day off. While we had been in the woods, something resembling summer had settled in the city. We spent Saturday enjoying the sun, wandering the market and the downtown area of the city half-in and half-out of the things going on around us; my mind, at least, was still somewhere cross-cutting logs in the hills outside of Darby, Montana. 

Sunday brought the beginning of Wilderness First Responder training for most of us. We reported to the city park bright and early and spent all of the next week learning the skills that would keep us and the people around us safe in the coming season. Throughout the week, the scenarios that we were presented with got more and more challenging and we learned the value (and the necessity) of staying calm in an emergency, but also that often the most valuable thing you can be (beyond competent) is kind. A week and a day later, we drove down to Lubrecht Experimental Forest for our final assessment (spoiler alert, we all passed!), and today everyone went their separate ways for the summer. I made the hour drive up to Lochsa Lodge and the Powell Ranger Station, and tomorrow we’re going back to Wilderness Gateway--full circle, really. 

Pack training with the Binnigers.

Tent life.

Family dinner at Sam Billings.

It was sad saying goodbye to Missoula, to the KOA, and to all the people we’ve come to know these last few weeks, but tomorrow brings the start of our first hitches and new challenges and new adventures ahead. We’re ready for this now, our time getting ready has been well spent, and I’m excited to see what the rest of the summer brings.

I’ll leave you with one final thought: These are good people. When I made the choice to leave New England and come to Montana, I wasn’t sure what I was walking into. I knew the work, understood the lifestyle, but I wasn’t sure who I’d be sharing it with. I knew trails people tended to be good--kind, openhearted, funny, and solid. These last three weeks have been proof of concept. At every campfire, under every array of stars that we have had the pleasure to witness, I have come to know this group of people as a good one. Good in the deepest sense of the word. Whatever happens this summer, we’ll be alright. I know it.

Thanks to everyone who’s been a part of the last three weeks, and thanks for reading, 

Liesl.

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Liesl Magnus

Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest | Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness

Saint Lawrence University

Double Major: Environmental Studies, Government

Liesl is a trail runner and competitive mountain biker from Holderness, New Hampshire. She grew up hiking, running, and skiing in the White Mountains and went to college in the Adirondacks. As an avid outdoor athlete, Liesl is passionate about the wilderness and all it can teach us. She has a great amount of respect for the opportunities afforded by a life spent outdoors and can't wait for her first season with SBFC!

An Ode to My Boots

Parker wrote this entry in anticipation of his upcoming season with SBFC and as a celebration of his accomplishments over the years, and the boots that accompanied him along the way.

Dear Boots,

Crunching over snow, scraped on rocks, ran over by logs, and pinched in crevices is how you lived out your life. You spent your life in these hard places so that I could enjoy them. I want to thank you for having held up for three years and hundreds of miles. Because of your loyalty I have been able to accomplish great feats in my own life.

Sliding through lakes of glass in the Boundary Waters you were baked by the sun. Walking up and down portages you were coated in dust. The boy scouts I took on this trip--and the men I took home--changed the way I looked at Wilderness. You gave me the ability to lead both from the front and by example. Hiking up hills you saw boys trip and fall, only to get up again as men bold and strong. I saw the child that I once was behind their eyes, and it made me want to see if I still have that child in me. We were reunited with that unknowing naïve feeling the following summer when we took a solo trip on the PCT.

Hiking away from everything I had ever known into a place I had never been before, with nothing but my bag, was an eye-opening experience. You had never been in snow that deep, but you held up beautifully in the icy mornings and the slushy evenings. You were underneath me for that whole trek until I tripped and fell, sliding down a ravine to the feet of my friends, where they picked me up and carried me onward to another trip.

Iowa - Nebraska - Colorado - Utah - Nevada - California - Oregon - Washington - Idaho - Montana - Wyoming - South Dakota - Minnesota - and Iowa once again. You spent a lot of time in a car on this trek. When you weren’t, we were standing on the edge of Crater Lake, Lake Tahoe, and the Pacific Ocean. We were climbing glaciers, meeting new friends, and having the time of our lives. 

I'm sorry that your life had to end so soon after that trip. I wish we could keep going places until we’ve seen them all. I won’t forget the memories you hold in your soles and the hardship that we went through together.

Sincerely,

Parker Lane DePond

PARKER DEPOND

Payette National Forest | Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness

Iowa State University

Major: Animal Ecology

Parker grew up among the corn mazes in Iowa and is currently studying Animal Ecology at Iowa State University. He grew a deep affection for the mountains when he went on an SBFC IDAWA trip into the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness in high school. Parker has spent time hiking 140 miles of the PCT, exploring the mountains in Colorado, and adventuring in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness of Minnesota and southern Canada. This is where he learned what wilderness was, what true camping was, and what family was all about. He is excited and humbled to spend this season with SBFC.

Wilderness Podcast + SBFC

Enjoy this episode of Wilderness Podcast featuring our very own Executive Director Sally Ferguson! Join host Adam Bronstein as he chats with Sally about wilderness stewardship and the work that SBFC does in the backcountry, creating life-long advocates by virtue of deep wilderness experiences, acknowledging and appreciating wilderness values, and finding solitude in the Selway and the Frank.

Find more episodes of Wilderness Podcast here.

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SBFC is dedicated to connecting wilderness with the people who work, live, and play within it. Your support goes directly to boots on the ground stewardship work, provides educational and leadership opportunities for youth in the Wilderness, and ensures the protection and preservation of the natural, pristine character of wilderness.

News from Saint Mary Lookout

Clare O’Connell

Saint Mary Lookout Volunteer Liaison

Bitterroot National Forest

Saint Mary Lookout sits atop St. Mary Peak at 9,350 feet. It’s located in the heart of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness area and is a popular hiking destination. 

Nine years ago, SBFC and the US Forest Service launched an experiment of partnering – to staff St. Mary Lookout with volunteer hosts/lookouts. Uncertain about the level of interest this opportunity might generate, a volunteer job posting was placed in the Missoulian and, to their surprise, it generated over 70 applications.

Each summer since then, St. Mary Lookout has been staffed by SBFC volunteers from mid-July to mid-September. Our role involves visitor education, smoke detection and maintenance projects. Visitors have the opportunity to see how a lookout operates. During the 2020 season 1,777 visitors hiked to St. Mary during the 8-week season.

The Stevensville District office of the Forest Service provides pack support to get water, wood, and gear to the lookout. 

Steve Brown, District Ranger in Stevensville, leading the pack string

Over the past 9 years St. Mary Peak has been the spot for marriage proposals, weddings, anniversaries, church services and big weather! 

A September morning after some big weather!

This project is just one example of SBFC’s mission to “bring citizens and youth to wilderness to work, live and play”.

2020 Season Summary

Tori Arnsparger

SBFC Program Director

2020 has been a year like no other. It brought many changes to our season but now standing on the other side, I cannot say enough how proud I am of our seasonal staff and Wilderness Ranger Fellows. Though handed the many uncertainties of life in the time of a pandemic, our seasonal folks showed up ready to work hard, reflect often and abide by new protocols to make this summer safe and successful.

Our four Wilderness Ranger Fellows came locally from the University of Montana. Two of them worked across the Bitterroot National Forest notably taking part in a blasting project with Forest Service personnel in the northern Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. The other two worked across the remote Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest monitoring many campsites and clearing many trees in the Selway Bitterroot Wilderness. At the conclusion of their season, all fellows reconvened at Packbox Pass to take in broad Selway Bitterroot views on the border of the two forests.

Connor, our Powell Lead Wilderness Steward with Madi, Phoebe, Isabelle and Will - Our 2020 WRFs

Our seasonal staff operated in smaller squads this season. We had three stewarding the Frank on the Salmon-Challis National Forest and a total of four on the Nez Perce-Clearwater: three clearing Wilderness trails on the Nez Perce-Clearwater and one leading fellows and stewarding the Selway Bitterroot.

In all, over 300 miles of trail were maintained, over 5400 trees were cleared, and volunteers contributed over 4500 hours of service. Talk about still getting things done, right?

Shannon, Pete, and Mike - Our NPC Trail Crew

Josh, Justine and Carly - Our Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Stewardship crew

This year would not have been possible without the organization and flexibility of our Forest Service partners, persistence of our volunteers and the determination & resiliency of our seasonal staff and fellows. I am so thankful for their collective contributions in making our 2020 field season a success.

An Artist's Paradise Residency

Rick White

Paradise Guard Station Artist-in-Residence

July 6-27

Bitterroot National Forest

The view from Monica’s corner of Paradise

I was walking along the Missoula river trail on a chilly April morning when I got the call from Stoney Samsoe of Open AIR, letting me know I’d been selected for an artist residency in July. Thanks to COVID-19, I had been out of work for nearly a month. My girlfriend Monica and her dog Jude lived thirteen-hundred miles east in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We were awaiting news on my applications to graduate school programs to see where — or if — we’d finally be relocating to be together in the same town. The long walks I took with my hound dog Finn were then my only connection to the world outside my apartment; at least, they were my only connection not mediated by a phone line or computer screen. Finn and I meandered in midday, between mornings of reading and writing and evenings of cooking soup enough to survive the apocalypse. Social distance, isolation, and quarantine were just entering the common vocabulary. To me they felt like coats I’d been wearing all winter long. Then Stoney called and offered me the residency: three weeks off-grid in the heart of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness to focus on my writing. I hesitated. Was more solitude really what I would be needing come July? More disconnection from society? More social distance? More isolation? 

Social distance

The answer: absolutely…but only if Monica and the dogs could join me. Thanks to Stoney at Open AIR, to Krissy Ferriter at SBFC, and to Erica Strayer and others at the USFS, they did join me, and our three weeks at the Paradise Guard Station this summer were some of the best weeks of our lives. 

On the afternoon of July 6th, Tanya Neidhart welcomed us to Paradise and gave us the rundown: how to keep the water tank filled; how to use the radio and the InReach to check in with dispatch; how to use the propane fridge; where to watch for rattlesnakes. We unpacked our food, books, and clothes. We ate a quick sandwich and some chips for supper. Then, after a sunset stroll down to the Selway River boat launch with the dogs, we lit a red candle on the window ledge above the bed, watched the big moon rise over an unfamiliar ridge, and slept. 

Playing

We slept hard. Months of constant calibration to coronavirus curves, stock market fluctuations, and unemployment application numbers had taken its toll. The relief was astounding. Time in Paradise was suddenly, wonderfully measured not by the hours until the next COVID press conference, or even by the hands on a clock, but by the arc of the sun in the sky, by the length of shadows. Three weeks felt like three years. Also like three minutes. Each day was wonderfully similar. I woke early, made coffee, and wrote in my journal. Monica read, walked the dogs, and cooked breakfast. I wrote essays on yellow legal pads in the late morning, typed them up on my 1957 Smith-Corona in the afternoon, then went fishing. Monica took hikes up White Cap Creek or down the Selway, or relaxed with a book by the creek. I kept the campground weedeated and the toilets cleaned and stocked with toilet paper. We checked in with river groups preparing to launch. Chatted with campers. We cooked dinner, built campfires. I picked on a travel guitar for half an hour or so each night, then the sun set, the moon rose, and we slept, and slept hard. 

The dreaded blank page

Even more than time to write or a quiet place to write, every serious writer needs routine. At least, I do anyway. Fortunately, thanks to Open AIR, the Forest Service, and SBFC, this summer I had all three. I wrote more in those three weeks than I did in the entire year leading up to the residency. What’s more, Monica and I became deeply connected to one small chunk of an immense wilderness, and now feel like characters (however minor) in the story of that wilderness, and members of the team of stewards committed to protecting that wilderness and using it well. We miss being in Paradise. More than that, though, we feel grateful for the time we had together there, grateful for all the good people we worked with and met, and excited to do our part to make opportunities like this possible for others in the future.